Another Mardi Gras parade & the USS Hawes

Another interesting day. Our plan was to check out the Mobile Museum, one of their attractions is a display on pirates. After that we were going to tour the USS Hawes, a frigate in town for the Mardi Gras festivities. We have seen the captain, a woman, in two parades as a guest or grand marshal. Some of the sailors were on a float in yesterdays parade and today many of them were marching in a parade. Well, the museum was closed due to the holiday, many schools and government offices close for Mardi Gras. We went to plan B, there was a parade starting in a few minutes so we watched it and increased our booty of moon pies, candy, and of course....beads. Check Judy out in one of the pictures in the new shades she scored from one float. After the parade we walked to the USS Hawes and spent an hour and a half taking a great tour. The Hawes is based on Norfork and was commissioned in 1985. She has 5 female officers and rest of the crew of 150 are men, officers and enlisted. She can house 2 helicopters and their air crews. We all enjoyed the tour and the crew were very nice and informative.

Mobile Mardi Gras

Today we went with Gary & Suzanne and Jody & Bruce to two Mobile Mardi Gras parades, one at 2:30 and another (on the same route) at 5pm. These parades lasted 45 and 30 minutes. Some floats even had a porta potties on their back ends, I think there was some booze on these floats. There were beads in the trees and utility lines. Some floats were two stories tall. Ya want beads, they had them, poor Bruce was smacked in the face by a box of candy canes that drew blood, too bad it wasn't a stuffed animal he was hit with. As you can see the streets were lined with thousands of people wanting "throws" (as they are called) from the "maskers". At the end of the parade we saw more street sweepers than I thought ever existed, they were a parade all by themselves. Tuesday is fat Tuesday and there are several parades in Mobile (and LOTS more in the local cities). I'm just now getting some hearing back in my right ear, the lady next to me was screaming like a fire truck.